About 3,000 young children accidentally fall into swimming pools every year, and about 300 of them drown. Many proposals have been advanced to prevent such unfortunate occurrences and in many cases it has been suggested (and in many communities it is mandatory) to build fences around swimming pools. One proposal is to cover the pool when it is not in use, which may not only prevent accidents but may also be useful in keeping dirt out of the pool, preventing evaporation of the pool water and in maintaining the elevated temperature of the water in a pool.
Generally, pool covers must be manually secured to the surrounds of a pool, and are therefore inconvenient to a user of a pool since it may take considerable effort and time. Because of this inconvenience, many users will opt to not cover their pool, or may only cover their pool when it is not being used for an extended period of time. This may leave open the possibility of unintended injuries from accidental falls into the pool. Additionally, uncovered pools may accumulate debris and other foreign matter. Automated pool covers are known within the art, but they very costly, sometimes costing as much as the swimming pool itself. Furthermore, manual and automated pool covers are frequently unsightly and tend to ruin the architectural style of a pool or the surrounding landscaping, especially with pools located on high-end properties or commercial sites such as hotels.
Traditional pool covers may also fail to provide the level of safety that is sought by pool owners. Commonly, pool covers are constructed from a flexible waterproof material that is exposed to precipitation. After a short period of rain, the pool covers may start to accumulate the rainwater due to the weight of the rainwater forming a sagging, concave surface. This collected rainwater may pose yet another threat to children who are susceptible to falling into the concave surface of the pool cover and drowning in the accumulated water. In addition, the sagging, concave portion of the flexible cover becomes a collector of debris that is often difficult to remove.
Pools are generally constructed indoors, outdoors, or half indoors and half outdoors. Pools that are constructed indoors offer the benefit of year-round use, but require considerable investment in building not only the pool, but also the surrounding structure. Outdoor pools may be less costly than indoor pools, but they may only be used a few short months out of the year in certain climates. An outdoor hot tub or spa may be able to be used for the entire year, as they are equipped with a heater and a thermo cover. The thermo cover may help keep the water temperature at a desired level, but these covers are frequently bulky and inconvenient to use, since they are heavy and cumbersome.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.